Do you have public art in your town? We live in towns with plenty of public art, and you may, too.
Here are some forms of neighborhood art:
- statues
- fountains
- murals
- art installations
If you can’t think of any examples like this from your town, look a little further afield:
- beautiful buildings
- unusual architectural details
- well-designed signs
Take your students out to visit the local neighborhood art, or give a homework assignment:
Choose your favorite piece of public art in our town, and ask your adult helper to take a picture of you in front of it. Choose a work of art that you want to share with your classmates — maybe something they won’t know about till you show them!
Gather up the photos and create a display.
Your display can do a lot of things, depending on your class and what you’re studying:
- Create a map of your town and place all the artworks in the right spots. You can use Google Earth for this, or do it by hand.
- Label the photos with students’ names and make a “Getting to Know You” or “Welcome to Class” bulletin board.
- Sort the photos into groups by the medium used in the works of art, or by another characteristic you’re studying. Create a graphic organizer.
- Use the photos in a Google Earth lesson plan.
This is a nice way to start off the year, a unit on art or communities or photography, or a geography lesson.
